An informed and thought-provoking analysis of what lies behind the headlines and headaches of business ethics and corporate social responsibility

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Rob Ford should stay

Toronto, that once sleepy capital of Canadian business, ‘New
York run by the swiss’, a city widely seen as boring and ugly (esp. compared to
its once-competitor Montréal) – has made global news: A crack smoking mayor! Match
that, London, New York or Berlin! All the mainstream media here (and globally) are pretty unanimous
in their call for Rob Ford’s resignation, or at least for him taking a break.

That in itself is a reason for suspicion. In my business ethics course this
week I had a vivid exchange with my students. We were discussing discrimination and how it is unethical to
apply criteria such as race, gender, sexual orientation, recreational habits
etc. to job qualifications and hiring. On that note, calls for Ford’s
resignation are not very convincing. After all, on many accounts, he has done a
good job as Toronto’s major. The city’s finances are healthy; public services
are running smoothly, key infrastructure projects, such as the construction of
new subway lines have finally taken off; and the major successfully tamed the
beast of an otherwise dysfunctional federal/provincial/municipal layered
bureaucracy to get even more public infrastructure projects off the ground.
This alone, in a city whose infrastructure is stuck somewhere in the 1970s, is
reasonable ground to consider him a success on his job.

Of course, there were other things in the past, where
arguably Ford violated the terms of his job. Toronto Star investigative
reporter Daniel Dale – a former student of us - digged out a number of occasions
where the mayor took advantage of his role for personal issues. But nothing
really stuck.

As much as some have made an ethical case here against the
mayor, I do not think these arguments really touch the heart of the
controversy.

Two things spring to mind to any reflective observer. First,
much of the vitriol directed at Ford in my view is just based on the persistent
WASPy (as in White Anglo Saxon Protestant) subculture of North America. Ford
likes to use recreational drugs, has all the wrong, politically incorrect friends
and, yes, is probably an alcoholic. Mind you, at least it was not about sex.
But in some ways his fate resembles the one of Bill Clinton or Elliot Spitzer:
Ford does not live up to the public morality and style, which is deemed
politically correct in Canada. It is worth noting that although possession of crack is illegal in Canada, the lack of concrete proof (in terms of physical substance) means that prosecution is unlikely. But the fact that Ford admits to it in public and simply
continues with his job just infuriates all those who either have succumbed to
this pubic consensus of stuffy morality or otherwise suppress it and live it
out in private. After all, Canada’s alcohol consumption is twice the global
average and him talking about his ‘drunken stupors’ as a regular occurrence probably
just represents an average recreational practice in this country.

Little surprise of course, that much of the hunt on Ford – representing the right wing Progressive Conservative Party – is coming from the ‘liberal’
press here. It not only shows how small ‘c’ conservative even Canada’s liberal
elites are but also reveals that all those who hated Ford as a mayor to begin
with now take whatever moral resource as their disposal to finally finish him
off.

This points to a second observation. Rob Ford epitomizes the
aches and tensions of a country which has been the most relaxed and forward
looking in terms of immigration. His constituency are the ‘905ers’ based on the
area code of Toronto’s suburbia. That is also where he is from. These are
mostly people with a first generation immigrant background coming from south
and east asia. The other lot, who hate him and are currently fanning the
flames of ousting Rob Ford are the
‘416ers’, those who live in the core downtown of Toronto. None of them voted
for Ford and they never felt represented by a fat, white, uneducated, loud
bloke from the suburbs.

Ford’s approval ratings have soared in the aftermath of him
admitting his drug use. This is no surprise. He represents people who struggle
to make ends meet; who are sick and tired of commuting to work in a city with
the longest commuting time by far; who get little kick out of taxes
being spent on things that do not relate to their everyday struggles; and who
know from their own experience that fighting your way out of, say, Bangladesh to Brampton (a 905 suburb) – yes – takes determination, hard work and not too much concern
for what their then constituency back home thought of them. Rob Ford, the small
time entrepreneur, in his stubbornness just represents them.

So what does this amount to? On day one of his election I thought Rob Ford was a disaster. Mostly
because I believe in Toronto’s potential as a great global city that deserves a
mayor of a different stature and outlook. But at the same time I also believe that a mayor has
to represent the city that voted him in. And boy, Rob Ford fits that bill. So
rather than trying to get this ugly representation of what Toronto actually
looks like out of sight, the real smart reaction to this scandal would be to
say that Rob Ford – with all his preposterous faults – is the one that the
people of Toronto chose to represent them. So lets allow him to continue to
represent us. And if we don’t like what we see - until we can vote him out - maybe we find the courage to
address the underlying issues. Rather than killing the poor guy who currently
just displays them.

3 comments:

I don't know if Rob Ford can be ascribed to Asian suburban residents of Toronto with the qualities mentioned in the post. However, considering all the issues discussed or not discussed here, putting such a continuous pressure on him from the first day to step aside for unproven allegations is more like a provocative movement by the opponent, typically using journalistic tools. To me, putting such a pressure on an authority to resign with no legal conviction and with all considerations discussed in this post, is nothing but a modern, stylish version of the attacks and murders in Egypt to topple a legal president- even a radical unpleasant one. If there is something called LAW over such controversies with its own predefined mechanism, citizens, whether they like the guy or abhor, ought to respect it. In such controversies, I think, law is the first and last resort.

"Rob Ford, the small time entrepreneur..." Well, that's how he likes to present himself, and I see he has done a good job with you two. Let's ignore the fact that his family business is worth (so I hear) $100m; let's ignore the connection with organized crime (and the possibility that he could be blackmailed for his connections with a crack house), the connection with a murder investigation and his photo with the victim, the rumours about his brother Doug, and just present him as one of the good old boys. When I heard about the case it was from an American from Florida in Berlin, and this is what he was talking about; he was not some puritan who disapproves of recreational drugs.

I think Rix has some good points. When and where has a politician with Ford's scandals been allowed to stay in power? How can anyone feel sorry for him when he has created this mess?I'd like to add a reminder that the definition of "Toronto" has changed, so the Toronto referenced in the article is not the Toronto that most of us are used to. The suburbs are not the city, and the lack of representation of Metro Toronto will continue to be problematic in years to come. I have no idea why de-amalgamation is not talked about more.

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Andrew Crane [L] and Dirk Matten [R]

Welcome to the Crane and Matten blog - for informed commentary and expert analysis on the everchanging world of corporate responsibility.

We are two business school professors best known for our books and research articles on business ethics and corporate citizenship. We wrote the Crane and Matten blog from 2008-2015, offering unique insight on a range of issues from across the globe.

Andrew Craneis Professor of Business and Society in the School of Management, University of Bath.

Dirk Matten is the Hewlett Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility in the Schulich School of Business, York University.